
When you enter a race the goal is to win, right? Of course it is.
I’m almost competitive to a fault. I remember teaching my son to play baseball when the fault of my competitiveness came to light. He was hitting the ball off the tee, and doing well, so I quickly graduated him to me underhand-tossing the ball to him. [By the way: the kid has a natural left-handed swing] Well, he once-out-of-ten times grasped the concept of sharing; so it was his turn to toss me the ball. As I held the over-sized, orange, plastic bat in my hands I traveled back in time. I was Babe Ruth, I was Mickey Mantle, and as my son tossed me the ball I crushed it. I had to hit the ball further than my son did. Not because he was my son, it could have been anyone, I have just always wanted to win. And it wasn’t hard since my son, at the time, was only two-years-old.
It’s funny looking back at that memory now. He, as a spongy two-year-old, was not upset that he didn’t hit the ball as far as his Dad did; it was actually quite the contrary. He looked up at me, with his beautiful blue eyes, and said “WHOOAAA” and ran to get the ball. All I saw, then, was a kid who saw something he wanted to be; he was impressed with me – maybe he had the thought that he wanted to be big and strong like me one day; it’s a look every father dreams of.
On the other hand, it’s possible you enter the race and accept that you cannot win so you are just happy to be there. Everyone is different. Some are ultra-competitive while others are content. Neither is wrong or right.
Does this resemble your walk with God at all?
Have you ever been so gung-ho, pumped up, on fire for God, that you were in a dead-sprint? A few things can happen when you sprint: one, you will give up, or stop, quicker; and two, it is harder to view your surroundings. And it’s even harder to hear, anything at all, during a sprint. When you sprint, you have tunnel-vision -- blinders on.
Test it out. You and someone you are close with go out to your local track and sprint a pre-determined section of the track. While you are sprinting, have a conversation about something meaningful, you know, like Starbucks coffee; The Walking Dead on AMC coming back soon [HECK YES]; or panda bears. Two things, if you are actually crazy enough to try this silly stunt: I want you pay attention to (or think about) how long did the conversation last?; and did you get anything out of it at all? The answers, to both, are, more than likely, not long and nothing.
Let’s stop right here. Because I am not saying, by any means, that you cannot be on fire for God 24/7/365. I actually pray that everyone reading this finds that place. Because, of course, the great commission of our lives is, in fact, to reach out and witness; to disciple and make disciples; and spread the grace and goodness of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. And we should not waste one more second while humans are dying with every click of the clock -- who have never met Jesus.
If you get, and understand, that time is of the essence in reaching people -- to save their souls -- then it is quite easy to get caught up in the moment and sprint.
Sometimes when we sprint spiritually, like on the track, we miss – or neglect – an important message. And I don’t know about you but the last thing I want to do is neglect the Holy Spirit. I am guilty as charged though.
God has blessed me beyond belief -- and beyond repair -- over the past six months. The blessing has come in the form of a hunger and thirst I have never felt before. And I, truly, have never been happier. The caveat to that is this: sometimes, I sprint.
I have found myself, at times, in the midst of devouring scripture and studying it; in downing book after book after book; in a non-stop attempt to satisfy the insatiable thirst that I have—sprinting.
I am a sinner and I am a dude; so between the two I am not sure which causes me to screw up more often. [All the women said Amen!] But, as my journey unfolds – day after day – I want to always be able to hear God when he speaks; I want to be in a place where I allow the Holy Spirit to move me. I do not want find myself in a sprint and, in the process, be out in front of God, rather than where I need to be.
When I feel like I am in a sprint, or not in a good spot to be fully obedient and hear from the Lord, I read John 5:19-20 and it slaps me in the face.
“Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”
Gets me every time.
Though all three persons of the Trinity (the Father, God; the Son, Jesus; and the Holy Spirit) are fully divine and united as one God in three persons, they all have overlapping roles. The Son always obeys the Father. That is what we should all strive for. How can I, or anyone, obey and follow when we are out ahead?
When our Father calls us, we should move. Because the way my two-year-old son looked at me in amazement as I did something he probably did not think could be done; the same is true in all of our lives. If we quit trying to out run God and the plans he has for us; and we truly open - not just our mind, not just our heart, and not just our souls but - our entire being, our entire life to him; and become radically obedient to his calling, then we will sit with smiles on our faces; with looks of astonishment at the things he will do; amazing things none of us thought, previously, could be done.
When I read Philippians it, simply, inspires me. Paul, who was writing to a church he founded and loved, wrote Philippians while being imprisoned for Christ’s sake – while no true crime had been committed at all. Rome, at the time, had not declared Christianity illegal, so Paul sat in prison and poured out, not only, his love for the Church but to warn the readers, then and now, of dangers to the Church.
In Philippians 4:11, Paul wrote: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances”.
Can you say this? Are you content whatever the circumstances are?; no matter where He moves you?; no matter where you are?
No one can out run God, you know this, so why try? Rather, let us all run at the pace he sets for our lives and be ready to move when we are called.
This race we are all in, to spread the Gospel to all the nations, is not one we can win alone. Together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, with our eyes fixated on God and with our entire lives [not bits and pieces] surrendered, we can win this race.
We can’t beat God there. We can meet him though.
-Makers Mark